Denture-support.



H. A. HURD.

DENTURE SUPPORT.

APPLIOATION FILED PEB.13, 1911. RENEWED EEB. 1, 1913.

I 1,060,568.. Patented Apr. 29, 1913.

COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH CO..WI\SHINGTCIN. D. c.

HARRY A. HURD, OF DES MOINES, IOWA.

DENTURE-SUPPORT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 29, 1913.

Application filed. February 13, 1911, Serial No. 608,332. Renewed February 1, 1913. Serial No. 745,741.

To all whom 2'25 may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRY A. HURD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Des Moines, in the county of Polk and State of Iowa, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Denture-Supports, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a denture support of simple, durable and inexpensive construction especially designed for use in cases where two or more teeth remain in the patients mouth and the teeth adjacent thereto are missing.

More especially it is my object to provide a support of this class that may be firmly and immovably held in position in the patients mouth in such a manner that pressure thereon, as a result of mastication, will be applied only upon the soft .tissues on which the denture is resting to thereby avoid all leverage or strains that might tend to loosen an anchor tooth or deflect it from its position.

A further object is to provide a denture of this class which may be readily, quickly and easily removed without injury to the denture or to the anchor tooth to which it is connected and which may also readily and easily be replaced, or adjusted.

My invention consists in certain details, in the construction, arrangement and combination of the various parts of the device, whereby the objects contemplated are attained, as hereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in my claims and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a portion of a jaw having my improved denture applied to an anchor tooth therein; said view also illustrates a bar for connecting the denture on one side with a stationary support on the other. Fig. 2 shows a central, longitudinal, sectional view of a part of a jaw and an anchor tooth therein and having my improved denture applied thereto as in use. Fig. 3 shows an enlarged, detail, sectional view on the line 33 of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 shows an enlarged, detail, sectional view on the line H of Fig. 1, and Fig. 5 shows a plan view illustrating the connecting bar.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, I have used the reference numeral 10 to in dicate a jaw and 11 a natural tooth in the jaw to form an anchorage for my improved plate support, said tooth being referred to herein as the anchor tooth. My improved denture support may be used in connection with any tooth that remains in the patients jaw and in applying my improved device, I first place upon the. anchor tooth a metal crown 12 which is permanently connected to the anchor tooth in an ordinary way. Assuming that the denture to be inserted is intended to take the place of four teeth next adjoining the anchor tooth, as illustrated in Fig. 1, Iconstruct the tooth next adjoining the anchor tooth as follows: For the lower portion of the tooth, 1 form a metallic tooth portion or base 13 of a size considerably less than the entire length of the tooth to be formed and this base portion 13 is permanently united to the metal crown 12 by solder or otherwise. The inner face of the said base portion 13 is preferably inclined outwardly toward the patients gums, as shown at 14 in Fig. 3, so that'a tooth brush can be inserted in the interior of the mouth to force out any material that may become lodged between the said base and the adjacent soft tissues in the mouth. This base is not intended to form a support for the tooth and it therefore need only have a slight contact with the soft tissues at the front. The outer end of said base is preferably rounded slightly both transversely of the jaw, as shown in Fig. 3, and longitudinally of the jaw, as shown in Fig.2, and I also preferably provide a transversely extended notch in the outer end portion of the base 13 to receive a corresponding lug hereinafter described. Permanently secured within the base portion 13 is an internally screw threaded nut 15 open at its upper end preferably at the center of the base portion 13.

The crown portion of the tooth adjacent to the anchor tooth 11 comprises a body portion 16 having its under surface rounded to fit the'base portion 13 and provided with a lug 17 to enter the notch in the base portion 13. An opening is provided extending vertically through the crown portion 16 de signed to receive an anchor screw 18, which screw is extended through said crown portion into the nut 15 so that said crown portion is made readily and easily detachable from the base portion 13.

One of the advantageous features of my improved denture is that the said screw 18 is wholly concealed except only the end of its head and it therefore cannot be seen at permanently united together.

provided which is fitted over the soft tissues covering the rear of the jaw and then the body portion 22 of the denture is filled in and permanently united to the parts 19,

'20 and 21 forming a solid denture which fits and rests upon the soft tissues at the rear of the jaw and which is shaped to take the place of the teeth posterior to the anchor tooth. The crown portion 16 is permanently united with the said denture. By this arrangement, it is obvious that when pressure is applied to any of the parts before described, the pressure will be carried wholly upon the soft tissues at the rear of the jaw and no pressure will be applied to the jaw through the base 11. One advantage of this arrangement is that the denture thus supported on the soft tissues and fixed to the anchor tooth assists materially in holding the anchor tooth firmly in position in the patients jaw.

In order to prevent lateral movement of the denture, I preferably employ a connecting bar 23 connected to the denture, which bar extends across the patients jaw and is permanently connected to an anchor tooth or other support on the opposite side of the jaw. In the present instance, I have shown a crown 24 at the end bar opposite from the crown 16, which crown is secured to an anchor tooth 25 by means of a screw 26 in a manner similar to the way in which the crown 16 is attached to the base portion 13.

In practice, I preferably fit the crown portion 16 to the base portion 13 and I also fit the denture to the soft tissues in the patients mouth independently. Then after both of these portions are fitted they are In this way accurate fitting of both of these portions may be readily and easily accomplished. The'advantage of having the top of the base portion 13 rounded is that for purposes of readjustment the rounded top of the base portion 13 may be ground off and the position of the denture relative to the base portion 13 may be changed to suit the requirements. The advantage of the lug 17 and its corresponding notch is that it assists the screw in firmly holding the crown portion 16 to the base portion 13.

Some of the advantages of my invention are that all of the parts may be readily and easily made, fitted to the patients mouth and assembled in position by the use of the ordinary tools and devices with which dentists are usually supplied. It frequently happens in cases where dentures are permanently fitted that foreign substances are forced between the denture and the soft tissues of the mouth, or that the soft tissues swell, and in such cases it is necessary to quickly remove the denture until the swelling is reduced or the foreign matter removed. In cases where said dentures are permanently secured to an anchor tooth, the anchor tooth is frequently broken or injured on account of such swelling or upon an attempt to remove the denture. In my improvement all that is necessary is to remove a single screw 18, whereupon the entire denture may readily and easily be detached and the anchor tooth together with the base 13 that is attached thereto may remain in the mouth without danger of having them injured, and then the denture may be returned to position and the screw inserted readily, quickly and easily by any person supplied with a screw driver of the proper size.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a dental device of the class described, the combination' of a crown designed to be fixed to a natural tooth, a tooth base portion firmly united to said crown and having a screw threaded opening therein, a tooth crown portion detachably fitted on said tooth base portion having an opening therein, a screw inserted through said opening and seated in the screw threaded opening of the base portion, and a denture permanently fixed to said crown portion and shaped to rest upon the soft tissues in 100 a patients mouth adjacent to said tooth base portion, for the purposes stated.

2. In a dental device of the class described, the combination of a crown designed to be fixed to a natural tooth, a tooth base port-ion firmly united to said crown and having a screw threaded opening therein, a tooth crown portion detachably fitted on said tooth base portion having an opening therein, a screw threaded opening of the base portion, a denture permanently fixed to said crown portion and shaped to rest upon the soft tissues in a patients mouth adjacent to said toothbase portion, and a connecting bar fixed in position relative to said denture and designed to extend across a patients mouth, and means for securing the bar at its other end to prevent lateral movement of the denture.

3. In a dental device of the class described, the combination of a crown designed to be fixed to a natural tooth, a tooth base permanently fixed to said crown and havingone end provided with a narrow edge designed to rest against the soft tissue in a patients mouth and having a screw threaded opening at its outer end,-said outer end being slightly rounded, a tooth crown portion for the base portion shaped to fit against the rounded end of the base portion, one of said portions being provided the screw threaded opening in the base porwith a notch and the other with a projection for the purposes stated. tion to enter the notch, a denture fixed to January 1, 1911, Des Moines, Iowa.

said crown portion and provided with a HARRY A. HURD. narrow base to rest upon the soft tissues in Witnesses:

a patients mouth, and a screw extended M. WVALLAOE,

through said crown portion and seated in M. PETERSON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

